The section only features one movie directed by a woman, documentarian Emma Tammi’s narrative debut “The Wind,” and Kuplowsky acknowledged the shortcoming. “Am I happy with the statistic? No. I want to do more and I want to do better with more films directed by women and people of color,” he said. “It starts with them being represented in film festivals to signal to the industry. Gatekeepers at the festival want to see more films with these voices.”

He said he had been tracking the number of movies directed by women and people of color under consideration for this year’s lineup and planned to discuss the challenge at a genre-focused panel at this year’s festival. Nevertheless, he singled out Tammi’s “The Wind” as a movie likely to generate sales interest during the festival. “It’s a very American folklore horror film exploring the Frontier era,” he said. “It has the requisite scares an audience is looking for while also delivering a good drama.”